Turn to Poetry: An Interview with Eric McHenry
Eric McHenry believes in the everyday value of poetry. As the fifth Poet Laureate of Kansas, he will spend the next two years traveling the state to bring poetry to people, and people to poetry.
"We tend to turn to poetry, if we turn to it at all, in times of celebration or loss or upheaval or transition — weddings, funerals, presidential inaugurations, after 9/11 — but we may not spend much time thinking about it otherwise," McHenry said. "It’s not an art form that vies for our attention the way music and movies and digital media do; it’s quieter. But the pleasures of reading it can be rich and deep and satisfying and daily, and different from those offered by other art forms."
The Poet Laureate of Kansas program is overseen by the Kansas Humanities Council (KHC), which promotes the humanities as a public resource for all Kansans. Leslie Von Holton is the Director of Programs for KHC. She agrees that poetry has lost its popularity.
"It’s no secret that Americans do not read poetry like they used to, but we have a lot to learn from it still," Von Holten said. "As Poet Laureate of Kansas, Eric McHenry will engage Kansans with his poetry and the poetry of others, to push us to think creatively and critically and help us gain new insights into this traditional form of expression."
McHenry also wants to help Kansans appreciate their state's rich poetic heritage.
"I hope to draw special attention to some of the poetry that has emerged from Kansas and from Kansans through the years," McHenry said. "This is a poetry-rich state, but not everyone knows that."
Check out a 2013 interview with Eric McHenry on our site, and listen to a HUSH podcast with McHenry and fellow Topeka poet Dennis Etzel Jr. You'll hear both poets read their work. And check out poetry at your library! Click on the links below for books by McHenry and former Poet Laureates of Kansas at your library.
Read on for an original interview with Eric McHenry.
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You’ve recently been chosen as the fifth Poet Laureate of Kansas. Can you tell us a bit about the role of Poet Laureate? What is the goal of the program?
I think the goal is to get the word out about poetry. We tend to turn to poetry, if we turn to it at all, in times of celebration or loss or upheaval or transition — weddings, funerals, presidential inaugurations, after 9/11 — but we may not spend much time thinking about it otherwise. It’s not an art form that vies for our attention the way music and movies and digital media do; it’s quieter. But the pleasures of reading it can be rich and deep and satisfying and daily, and different from those offered by other art forms. The poet laureate goes around making that case to Kansans. The program is overseen by the Kansas Humanities Council and is a humanities-promoting effort; poetry reminds us of our common humanity by offering one consciousness a window into another.
What are your personal goals for your term as Poet Laureate?
I hope that the talks and readings I give will awaken people to some of poetry’s possibilities, and/or will introduce them to some ideas and some beautiful poems that they weren’t already aware of. And I hope to draw special attention to some of the poetry that has emerged from Kansas and from Kansans through the years. This is a poetry-rich state, but not everyone knows that. I also hope to use a variety of different media to bring poetry to people — a blog, social media, print media, and (stay tuned) podcasts or the radio. My blog, by the way, is thepoetintopeka.wordpress.com, and I’m using it to highlight brilliant and undervalued poems and other cool poetry-related stuff.
Do you anticipate that your term as Poet Laureate will change your perspective on poetry or inspire your writing in any way?
I’m a native Kansan and have lived here most of my life, but I haven’t gotten out of the upper-right-hand corner very often. I’m going to be visiting counties and towns that I’ve never been near, and learning about their colloquialisms and their high school football teams’ mascots and the eccentricities of their founders and the giant flatheads that haunt their rivers, and hopefully eating their famous fried chicken. It’s a two-year-long course in Kansas Studies I’m going to be taking: if that fails to enrich and inspire my poetry, I’ll have no one to blame but myself.
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Eric McHenry’s new book of poems, Odd Evening, will be published by Waywiser Press in 2016. His previous collections include Potscrubber Lullabies, which won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award in 2007, and Mommy Daddy Evan Sage, a children’s book illustrated by Nicholas Garland. He also edited and introduced Peggy of the Flint Hills, a memoir by Zula Bennington Greene. His poems have appeared in The New Republic, Yale Review, Cincinnati Review, Field, Orion, The Guardian (U.K.), Poetry Daily and Poetry Northwest, from whom he received the 2010 Theodore Roethke Prize. Since 2001, he has been a poetry critic for The New York Times Book Review. He lives in Lawrence with his wife and two children and teaches creative writing at Washburn University.
